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In line with its mission to help Indians simplify their financial life and feel more confident about their money, India’s favorite investment app, ETMONEY, has partnered with Google to offer Google Pay users a super-simplified way to invest in Mutual Funds and National Pension System [NPS].

The integration of ETMONEY’s feature on Google Play will help its users enjoy a seamless experience without leaving the platform. This collaboration will allow Google Pay users to identify the right Mutual Funds and invest in them within minutes using their Google account and UPI ID.

Google Pay users won’t need to create any user ID or worry about remembering multiple passwords. They will also experience the same ease while investing in the world’s cheapest retirement product, the National Pension System.

To make sure millions of Google Pay users who are staying away from investing due to hassles involved in completing KYC can start their journey to wealth creation, ETMONEY has enabled zero paperwork, instant KYC on the Google Pay App. Users can also go through curated lists of investment themes, see top mutual funds, and do a comparative analysis to make investment decisions quickly and with confidence.

Speaking on the integration of ETMONEY on Google Pay, Founder-CEO Mukesh Kalra said

Innovation has been the cornerstone of our growth. ETMONEY’s integration with Google Pay is yet another innovation that marries the convenience of ETMONEY with the expansive reach of Google Pay. This will be a big push for the country’s financial ecosystem.

We are starting with Direct Mutual Funds and NPS and will soon expand to our other offerings in the near future. The sheer reach and native experience offered by both platforms will be extremely helpful in driving the mission of simplifying the financial journey of millions of Indians.

About ETMONEY

ETMONEY is an app for financial services that is simplifying the financial journey of new-age Indians. Consumers use ETMONEY to invest in zero-commission Direct mutual funds for Free, protect their families with unique Insurance solutions & use ETMONEY Credit Card to take instant loans at low-cost.

Growing at 350% yearly, combined with multiple innovative solutions, it has grown to 7Mn users from more than 1300+ Indian cities and is driving more than $500Mn of non-payment annual transaction volume on its platform.

|In: Fintech|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Ten leading fintech companies have been selected for the seventh annual FinTech Innovation Lab Asia-Pacific, a mentorship program created by Accenture that helps startups fine-tune their business plans and solutions by pairing them with mentors from leading financial institutions.

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This year’s program received applications from 162 companies across more than 30 countries, with solutions related to the five themes for the 2020 program:

  • Data & analytics
  • Digital bank solutions
  • Emerging technologies
  • Health insurance ecosystem
  • Intelligent automation


Leveraging artificial intelligence [AI], advanced analytics, natural language processing and other technologies, the 10 selected startups – which hail from seven markets, including India – have developed innovations designed to help financial institutions address a variety of challenges, including keeping up with compliance requirements, analyzing large volumes of structured and unstructured data, and building more-personalized customer products and services.

The Lab will partner startups with senior executives from the participating financial institutions, as well as with technology entrepreneurs and industry experts. The mentors will work with the companies to further develop their solutions and business strategies through a series of virtual meetings, user-group sessions, workshops and networking opportunities, helping them connect with potential customers at top institutions.

Sonali Kulkarni, Lead – Financial Services, Accenture in India said

We are seeing some fantastic innovation coming out of India’s fintech ecosystem, be it for digital payments, credit and risk management, underwriting or security. As per an Accenture analysis of data from CB Insights – a global venture-finance data and analytics firm, released in February 2020, fintech investments in India nearly doubled, to US$3.7 billion in 2019, making the country the world’s third largest fintech market.

The FinTech Innovation Lab Asia-Pacific is a collaboration between Accenture and leading financial institutions, which this year include AIA International Limited; Bank of America; BlackRock; China Construction Bank [Asia]; Credit Suisse; Dah Sing Bank; Generali; Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (Asia) Limited;  and more.

The 2020 Lab formally kicks off in October and culminates in December, when the participants will present their solutions at a virtual Demo Day to an audience of venture capitalists and financial industry executives.

The 2020 FinTech Innovation Lab Asia-Pacific participants are: 

  • Knight FinTech [India] – A Singapore- and India-based fintech, Knight FinTech provides an AI-powered, SaaS-based treasury management and credit assessment platform to help financial firms increase returns and decrease risk. Its interest rate and credit risk models analyze millions of data points to provide actionable insights to treasury managers or dealers taking a position on yield curve or taking a corporate credit risk exposure.   
  • Fedo [India] – Fedo’s algorithm quantifies an individual’s risk for various diseases and his/her propensity to file a claim over the next few years, based on a photograph, enabling insurers to onboard and underwrite customers digitally with little to no manual intervention. The solution has helped Fedo’s retail health insurance clients reduce underwriting costs by 50% and turnaround times by more than 70%.
  • Fano Labs [Hong Kong] – Specializing in speech recognition and natural language processing technologies across a wide variety of languages and dialects, Fano Labs helps enterprises with customer service, compliance and other lines of business, enabling them to accurately identify potential compliance risks, reduce costs, and uncover potential sales opportunities.
  • KADA [Australia] – KADA’s AI-based platform, known as K, enables financial institutions to scale data knowledge across the organization. By analyzing millions of event logs, K helps companies identify hidden context of data, understand how its people use data, and create networks between data stored in data warehouses, data lakes and analytical tools — giving people the knowledge they need to deliver faster and better data outcomes.
  • Flybits [Canada] – Flybits is a leading customer experience platform for the financial services sector, delivering personalization at scale. With an extensive collection of customizable modules that preserve consumer privacy, Flybits enables banks to increase speed to market, and maximize return on investment through its digital channels. Flybits enables financial institutions to elevate their mobile apps, creating a ‘human-touch’ experience and advancing the customer experience beyond transactions.
  • SPIN Analytics [United Kingdom] – SPIN Analytics helps tier-one and digital banks improve credit risk management with its explainable AI-based platform, RISKROBOT. The platform provides 10x acceleration of model development, validation, documentation and deployment, which reduces maintenance time by at least 90% and total costs by 70%. Encoding 28 years of credit risk-modeling experience into AI and insights, the platform helps banks make decisions and control assumptions. The solution covers all types of credit risk models for regulatory, risk management, and business purposes.
  • Capitalise.ai [Israel] – An Israeli-based startup offering non-technical traders the ability to automate their trades, using free-style text with no coding needed. Capitalise.ai’s trading platform turns text into complex algorithmic trading strategies, using natural language processing technology. Capitalise.ai’s platform is already being used by leading brokers around the globe, amplifying their performance by offering their traders a unique trading experience.
  • UVAS [Singapore] – UVAS (by Atlant.io) is a securities exchange offering primary issuance of shares and debentures, secondary trading and optimized post-trade process, with automatic clearing, settlement and custody, all at 90-95% cost savings compared to other exchanges. UVAS strives to remedy the situation of illiquidity and opaqueness in capital markets and serves as a turnkey solution for the alternative asset space.
  • Symbo [Singapore] – Symbo uses its proprietary digital insurance platforms to digitize insurance distribution in partnership with insurance companies. Its award-winning mobile app helps insurers digitally engage with intermediaries, tied agents and financial advisors by simplifying insurance transactions.
  • Staple [Singapore] – Staple’s cognitive AI-based solution helps reduce the costs of back-office operations, such as compliance and onboarding checks. By combining computer vision, natural language processing, optical character recognition and machine learning, the solution can read, interpret and extract data from documents at scale, regardless of layout, format or language.

Launched in Hong Kong in June 2014, the FinTech Innovation Lab Asia-Pacific has received more than 1,000 applications since its inception, and the program’s 49 alumni companies have raised US$525 million and created more than 1,500 jobs after participating in the program.

The FinTech Innovation Lab Asia-Pacific is modeled on similar programs that Accenture co-founded in New York and London in 2010 and 2012, respectively. Globally, the Labs’ alumni companies have raised, in total, approximately US$2 billion in venture financing after participating in the program.

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Emergencies such as medical, rent, advance salary were lead reasons for borrowing on P2P platform says study. LenDenClub, one of the leading peer-to-peer lending platforms in India, released its 2019 report on the key borrowing and lending behavior of consumers [borrowers and lenders]. According to the report, the financial city of Mumbai and the Silicon city Bengaluru topped the chart for the maximum number of lenders & borrowers respectively on P2P platforms.

New age technology Unified Payments Interface [UPI] with 50% users has topped the chart for loan repayment followed by 47% of ECS payment in P2P lending.

Education and needs like family functions, home renovations were the other key reasons to borrow after emergencies. The LenDenClub data outlines the purpose of borrowing and lending among current society being need-oriented rather than extravagance.

LenDenClub, the P2P platform that offers loans up to Rs. 10,000 has analyzed the annual data of more than 4,00,000 users, and has come up with a report – ‘The 2019 Lending and Borrowing Behavior‘. It gives out multiple data points and key insights showing the typical consumption patterns, borrowing and investment habits of people on P2P platform across India.

When it comes to borrowing and spending, Bengaluru is ahead in terms of people having the highest credit demand, Mumbai ranked second, followed by other metros such as Hyderabad, Pune and Chennai. The highest numbers of lenders were from the financial capital of Mumbai, followed by the tech cities Bangalore and Hyderabad.

The findings depict that young, tech-savvy, population with financial aptitude are much ahead of its previous generations, as 40% lenders and 53% of borrowers are under the age bracket of less than 30 yrs. The findings also reveal that the younger generation is more financially responsible and are comfortable borrowing and lending on new-age digital platforms.

The data also revealed that 12% of the borrowers and 16% of the lenders comprised of women customers, which suggests that salaried women’s loan borrowing market is under-penetrated compared to men. Customers from business backgrounds topped the chart along with CXOs to mid-managerial level and salaried individuals as investors on the platform.

63% of the borrowers availed credit for emergencies, while 37% availed for aspirational needs. This is turn suggested that emergencies was one of the main reasons for taking loans followed by aspirations such as family functions and home renovations

On the occasion, Bhavin Patel, Founder & CEO of LenDenClub,  said

There is no hiding of the fact that the usage of UPI in India is growing at a pace and has attracted attention of the entire world. The same can be seen in our data where younger technology-savvy generations are using newer technologies such as UPI for doing transactions.

Considering only 16% of the lenders on our platform are women, we will work towards creating awareness and reducing the gender gap. Also the data clearly reveals that the majority of loans are availed for emergency situations. This is the first of its kind data and will help investors to take informed decisions on borrowers through our platform.

The customer analysis also has certain fascinating insights. Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays were the preferred days by borrowers for credit application. While the afternoon meal break i.e. 12.00 noon to 1.00 pm was the most preferred time when majority of the borrowers applied for a loan. The average percentage of repeat borrowers is 37% in which the loan frequency of repeat borrowers is three times.

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PhonePe, India’s leading digital payments platform, and Flipkart, India’s homegrown e-commerce marketplace, announced the launch of Flipkart’s Pay Later facility on the PhonePe platform.

Payments through the Flipkart Pay Later solution can be completed in a single click, making it a fast and convenient payment option for PhonePe users. While transacting on PhonePe, users can now choose the Flipkart Pay Later credit option on the app and clear their dues through one single payment by the 10th of the next month, at no extra cost.

Launched by Flipkart in 2017, Flipkart Pay Later is a revolutionary customer focused credit instrument that makes shopping more convenient and affordable for millions of consumers across India. The solution allows consumers to shop for small ticket items up to Rs. 5,000 through a single click payment on the platform, without waiting to generate an OTP.

Pre-approved Flipkart users can register for this option on the Flipkart app/site and then activate the Flipkart Pay Later option inside the ‘My Money’ section on PhonePe. With this launch, PhonePe aims to provide users access to a convenient way to pay on the app and at millions of merchants operating on the PhonePe network.

Commenting on the launch, Deep Agrawal, Head of Payments, PhonePe, said

We are excited to launch Flipkart Pay Later on the PhonePe platform. PhonePe has always endeavored to provide consumers with the power to choose the payment instrument of their choice.

Flipkart Pay Later is a great way for eligible users to transact safely and conveniently on the PhonePe app. PhonePe is the largest payments platform in the country and we are committed to creating wide-ranging payment options on the platform.

Smrithi Ravichandran, Business Head, Fintech & Payments Group, Flipkart, said

At Flipkart, we put customers at the heart of all our innovation and Pay Later is one such initiative. We have been very encouraged to see the wide acceptance of our in-house innovation ‘Flipkart Pay Later’ by our users.

After successful adoption of this payment solution on our website/app, we believe this is the right time to share synergies between the group companies and bring this customer-focused solution on PhonePe which is leading the digital payments market in India.

Flipkart Pay Later is currently enabled on Myntra and PhonePe.

|In: Fintech|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

SBM Bank (India) – the first bank to receive banking licence in India through wholly owned subsidiary route, announced a tie up with PayNearby, India’s largest hyperlocal fintech start up. Both firms signed a Memorandum of Understanding to build an “open banking” network towards delivering basic banking solutions as well as advanced financial services, to their customers.

The partnership would enable the Bank to offer complete suite of digital and assisted banking solutions through PayNearby’s exhaustive network of micro-enterprise and retail touchpoints. Besides a win-win for the partners; the alliance will not only empower the underbanked and unbanked segments; but also enable the micro-enterprise and retail touchpoints to earn better returns on their investments. The deployment of the banking module will be done in a phased manner and will work seamlessly with the existing platforms at PayNearby outlets and touchpoints.

Both companies are focused to build open modular architecture-led platforms, that can support plug and play APIs, ensuring highly customized environments which can expand using respective partnership approach.

Commenting on the partnership, Sidharth Rath, MD & CEO, SBM Bank (India), said

At SBM Bank, banking has become an on-demand experience for the new age customers. Branch locations, banking hours or normal waiting time – these concepts are fast eroding. We, being a new bank, have set sights on offering a seamless experience, comprising of taking the bank to where customers prefer to be.

Our partnership with Nearby Technologies is built on a commitment to facilitate financial empowerment among underbanked and unbanked segments – through the wide network comprising of the MSMEs and retail outlets. Together, we will not only make secured, digital and assisted banking accessible to these entities but also add value in their economic growth.

These entities are the backbone of the Indian economy and reaching them directly with the value drivers will trigger a visible positive impact and reduce inefficiency in their economic chain.

PayNearby is the largest agent banking platform from Nearby Technologies – built to educate, engage and push wide range of fintech services, including basic banking facilities like account opening to more advance options like the latest ecommerce experience, the latest payment technology, including UPI, P2P payments and many more.

The technology platform connects consumers via local retailers and micro enterprises, to the solution providers – thereby not only expanding their offerings, but also improving their financial viability and reach. The network of PayNearby retailers, spans across 16,700+ PIN codes in the country.

Commenting on this, Anand Kumar Bajaj, MD & CEO, PayNearby remarked

We will have more than 20 lakh new age retail partners on ground, who will be sourced in a phased manner. They will be the first touch point to onboard customers and serve as the founding stone for the neo-banking initiative. The multi-modular, scalable architecture will allow us to easily plug and play different partner APIs and create an ecosystem where in addition to banking facilities, we are also able to offer value added services based on consumer interest.

From 9 Crore customers to 50 Crore beneficiaries, we believe through our distribution strength and the banking solutions from SBM Bank, we can together realize the dream of bridging the digital gap and making essential services available for all. PayNearby will transition India from assisted service to self-service nation by upgrading and reskilling our partners. We are geared to actualize this goal through our trained, tooled and tested retail partners on ground. The measure of success comes from enabling customers with what they want at a time, place or mode of their choice.

In a research conducted by Nearby Technologies, it has been observed that consumers of all genres have shown their preference for simple to use banking interfaces and are willing to adapt to new technology and services if presented accordingly. Upgrading cash into digital currency will bring about large-scale adoption of commercial digital products in this country.

Adding his views, Neeraj Sinha, Head, Consumer & Retail Banking, SBM Bank (India), said

We believe a new age banking experience is built on empowering and partnering with best-in-class players who can help us solve key challenges, in our pursuit to take a superior banking experience across key markets. We are elated to partner with Nearby Technologies – a new age fintech company and together, we shall take a superior and customized banking experience to the people who need it the most.

PayNearby, powered by SBM Bank (India) will offer all the banking solutions – ranging from account opening, banking transactions, final product sales, AEPS. Also, all payment transactions and relationship management can be executed at the outlets using the digital app or through assisted banking feature.

About Nearby Technologies Pvt. Ltd

Incepted in April 2016, Nearby Technologies is a fintech company offering financial/non-financial services to the underbanked and unbanked segment. Nearby Technologies works on a B2B2C model through its various brands – PayNearby, InsureNearby, BuyNearby and few more. PayNearby empowers retailers at the first mile to offer digital services to local communities, thereby boosting financial inclusion in India. Retailer services are focussed on Aadhaar based banking services, Domestic Remittances, Bill Payments, Card Payments, and insurance services among others.

It was founded by Anand Kumar Bajaj, Subhash Kumar, Yashwant Lodha & Rajesh Jha who bring with them rich experience in banking, payments and financial sector. A DIPP-certified FinTech startup, has partnered with various financial institutions including YES Bank, RBL Bank, ICICI Bank, State Bank of India, Axis Bank, CC Avenue, Bill Desk, NPCI, FASTag, NBFC and FMCG companies. It is the sole technology provider using Aadhaar Enabled Payment Services [AEPS] and IMPS to YES Bank, making them one of the only two fintech companies hosted by the National Payments Corporation of India [NCPI].

|In: Fintech|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Hyderabad FinTech Forum [HFF] created to enable & strengthen the start-up ecosystem to make Billion $/ Rs Unicorns from the city. HFF is a platform for the exchange of ideas related to technology in BFSI space. The Hyderabad Fintech Forum was officially launched by Mr. Jayesh Ranjan, Principal Secretary IT & Industries, Govt. Of Telangana, in the presence of  J.A Chowdary, Founder of Fintech Forums in India & Chairman of India Blockchain Standards Committee, Prof. P. J Narayanan, Director IIIT, Hyderabad, Ms. Karena Belin, Founder, W Hub – Hong Kong,  Sasi Kanth Vallepalli, Entrepreneur and others from BFSI and Fintech industry in the city.

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Hyderabad FinTech Forum comprises of early stage/growth stage Fintech start-ups, heads of R&D and Technology departments of global MNC companies in India, Angel Investors, Venture Capitalists, Academicians & Researches, Government Officials and Regulators. More than 600 Fintech members have already joined Hyderabad Fintech Forum. HFF has also created 7 Special Interest Groups [SIG] for domains such as Blockchain Technology, Data Science, AI, ML, Cyber Security, Lending etc.

Hyderabad FinTech Forum website was also launched. The HFF website provides an exclusive platform for mentor-mentee connectivity for start-ups who seek mentorship in different stages of the life cycle from the start-up community.

On the side-lines of this launch a Memorandum of Understanding was also signed between Q-Hub which is a Start-up incubator, Accelerator, Coworking & networking platform in Hyderabad by Priyanka Vallepalli, CEO of Q Hub with Ms. Karena Belin, Founder, W Hub, Hong Kong which is the largest Fintech incubator, Accelerator,  with more than 3600 Start-up companies, mostly from Fintech space with 7 Unicorns and some are in the pipeline. This MOU enables the Cross-Border exchange of Fintech Market Opportunities particularly in India, China & Hong Kong.

J.A Chowdary, Founder of Fintech Forums in India & Chairman of India Block-Chain Standards Committee explained the role of Hyderabad Fintech Forum in promoting and mentoring the start-ups in the city & outlined the process by which we can create Fintech Unicorns in Hyderabad. He added

Hyderabad was the first city in India to create an exclusive Infrastructure for Financial & Fintech activities in 2000. It also has the most important Fintech Eco-System components such as HQ for IRDA, IDRBT, NPCI R&D and all banking academies which itself creates a vibrant Fintech Eco-System in this part of the globe. Hyderabad Fintech Forum will also setup a global Fintech Mentor Grid to enable most Fintech start-ups to take advantage of mentorship and succeed in their journey. We hope that Hyderabad Fintech Forum will form an ideal platform for boosting the start-up Eco-System in the city help in emergency of several Unicorns from the city.

Speaking on the occasion, Jayesh Ranjan, Principal Secretary IT & Industries, Govt. Of Telangana said

The Telangana Government is giving special emphasis on creating the necessary Fintech infrastructure, building appropriate and attracting Fintech investment in a big way.

He highlighted the growth rate at which the Fintech start-up companies are coming to the city and benefiting from the available Eco-System. This will make Hyderabad the most emerging Fintech Hub in the world.

Adding to this, Sasi Kanth Vallepalli, Entrepreneur, CEO of Quality Matrix, Partner of RxAdvance and Co-founder of Q Hub, said

Q-Hub is an Eco-System to build the business into much greater heights. With a platform created for our community members to interact, exchange ideas, form partnerships through regular seminars and events.  Q-Hub is an inspirational centre for companies. The MOU between Q-Hub & W-Hub will also help the community get better access to global developments and help Hyderabad emerge as the leading Start-up Hub.

The launch of Hyderabad Fintech Forum was followed by a panel discussion on The Unicorns from India – A Myth or Reality by experts from the industry throwing light on how the start-up Eco-System can create more unicorns in coming years.

|In: Books|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

What is one thing that comes to our minds when we refer the term banking? An immediate picture that we visualize is about customers lined up in different queues for getting their banking work done – a brick and mortar banking experience where long waits are normal to get queries sorted and numerous follow-ups and visits to the bank branches for document submission, etc. are regular features. The list can be endless but the picture being portrayed may not be relevant to the Banks of today since Digital Banking is changing the face of banking.

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Now  touch a button and you would come to know whether you are eligible to apply for a home-loan of ‘x’ amount or what should be your ideal investment approach to save taxes. Though there are some banks that like to reinvent the technological wheel, banks like HDFC Bank have pioneered to transform into a Digital Bank via partnerships, in-house innovations, and building products with a customer-centric approach. HDFC Bank is India’s largest private-sector bank and a bank that it too big to fail as per the Reserve Bank of India [RBI].

How did HDFC bank manage to transform itself from a Lifecycle bank to a Lifestyle bank?  How did the bank shape its digital journey? What are some of the innovations from the largest bank in India by market capitalization? If you are curious to know the behind the scene transformation story, you must grab a copy of HDFC Bank 2.0: From Dawn to Digital by renowned journalist Tamal Bandyopadhyay.

Aditya Puri, the MD of HDFC Bank also considered as Bachchan of Indian banking is one man who led this transform from forefront. He has been at the helm for 25 years; his journey in HDFC Bank started way back in 1994 when he joined as India’s Chief. The book captures the bank’s journey under the leadership of Aditya Puri. Tamal Bandyopadhyay combines his financial knowledge, eye for detail, and excellent storytelling style to create a vivid portrait of India’s most valuable bank and its path to the future.

The book is divided into three sections

  • The Digital Journey
  • The Flashback
  • The Puri Legacy

In the year 2015, dramatic changes were happening in the financial services sector due to simultaneous trends in technology, regulation, and markets. The rise of the smartphone, India’s unique ID system Aadhar, and payment innovations like Unified Payment’s Interface [UPI] were creating a branchless distribution channel. This was the time when the Reserve Bank of India [RBI] issued license to many new banks dedicated to payments to bring in fresh, technology-savvy competition. It is around the same time i.e. September 2014 when seeds of transformation were sowed in HDFC Bank. It was time to be disrupted or become a disruptor!

Aditya Puri had made a trip to the Silicon Valley, a year earlier in September 2014, to have a bird’s-eye view of the innovations and developments in the Valley. The idea was to gauge the kind of impact technology has on the finance and banking sector. The lesson learned was that the team at HDFC Bank had to roll-up their sleeves to lead the digital disruption in India. The top-guns in the bank were convinced that to shape the ideas at a lightning-fast speed, they had to act and execute like a startup.

They worked on a series of strategies to reduce the turn-around time involved in core banking systems like loan processing/approval, a recommendation of useful products based on customer’s profile, accelerated funds transfer, mobile banking, shopping, etc. Digitization would not only enhance the overall customer experience but it would also reduce the operating costs.

It is important to note that before leveraging digital technologies, HDFC Bank came up with the idea of ‘missed call banking’ in the year 2013. Though HDFC Bank was not the inventor of the technology, it was the first to implement it at scale!  The strategy ahead was to provide speed, use technology to do credit & risk management at scale, improve customer experience using Artificial Intelligence [AI] & Machine Learning [ML], leverage the power of Aadhar [eKYC, UPI, etc.] and other elements of the India Stack.

This led to the development of products like Chillr [money transfer over the phone using an App], EVA [Electronic Virtual Assistant]; a chatbot to handle queries from customers, migration from internal systems of record to platforms so that the bank can provide API [Application Programming Interface]. series of innovations enabled the bank to launch new products in the consumer banking & loans category for both urban & rural customers.

[L-R] Nandan Nilekani, Tamal Bandyopadhyay and Aditya Puri at the Bengaluru Launch

HDFC bank also came up with the idea of SmartBuy where everything [traveling, shopping, etc.] was available at one place. The bank did not charge a commission from their sellers since the intent was to increase the overall customer base and provide a gamut of services to its customers.

The book touches upon many such innovations, some of them were developed in-house and many were developed by partnering with start-ups & leading companies in banking & finance software. This might be of huge interest to entrepreneurs, management professionals, CEOs as well as engineers who want to execute things at scale. It also walks us through the leadership style of Aditya Puri, his customer engagement skills [even at a grassroots level], his Lucky-13 team  that built the bank and, finally, how a big organization [like HDFC Bank] can achieve wonders by becoming agile in changing the business environment.

The Flashback section also talks about the initial days of the formation of the bank, how Deepak Parekh hand-picked Aditya Puri for the important job, and more.

We had an opportunity to attend the launch event of the book in Bengaluru where the author, Aditya Puri, and Nandan Nilekani were present. Aditya Puri shed some light on his personal life as well and how he manages to have work-life balance even at his position. It was fun as well as insightful to attend the event. Along with the knowledge that we gained, we also got a signed copy of the book!

Have you read the book ‘HDFC Bank 2.0 – From Dawn to Digital‘; do leave your biggest learning from this immersive read.

|In: acquisition|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

upGrad, India’s leading Online Higher Education Company, has acquired CohortPlus, India’s largest and the most active community on Product Management and one of India’s largest communities on Data Science.

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India has seen more than 400% rise in demand for data science professionals across varied industry sectors at a time when the supply of such talent witnesses a slow growth, said Talent Supply Index [TSI] by Belong. Built with the vision of becoming a career partner for people looking to transition into new age careers and having grown organically to 31K+ community members, CohortPlus brings with itself rich consumer insights, which will enable upGrad to enhance its offerings for the learners.

Ronnie Screwvala and Mayank Kumar, Co-founders, upGrad in a joint statement, said

Employees in India are looking forward to picking up new age skills to make themselves more relevant in the current workforce. upGrad’s highly engaging online learning solution along with CohortPlus’s deep penetration in the community of Data Scientists and Product Managers, will allow us to reach a much larger and relevant audience.

CohortPlus is an online community founded in 2015 by Srinivasan Narayan, which brings together like-minded career aspirants in a single community platform, where they can network with each other, ask and clarify doubts and be abreast of the latest events in the field of data science and product management. Its members comprise of 31100+ professionals from around the world, from companies like Google, Adobe, Facebook, LinkedIn, Microsoft, Uber, Amazon, Practo, Zomato etc. It is one of India’s largest and most active communities in Data Science and Product Management.

Members can post their questions and get various perspectives from industry professionals and can also get assistance for job interviews. The 3 member team of CohortPlus is based out of Bangalore. Today this community is one of the largest and the fastest growing community in this domain and continues to grow organically. CohortPlus had raised angel investment from Manish Maheshwari [Twitter India MD], Alok Mittal [Indifi Founder] and Sujatha Kumar in 2015.

Srinivasan Narayan, Founder & CEO, CohortPlus, said

With upGrad’s support, CohortPlus intends to build a proprietary go-to platform for anyone looking to take a step up in their careers. We are looking forward to widen the joint vision of building careers of tomorrow and becoming transformational partners for those looking to up-skill and move up in their careers.

About upGrad

upGrad was founded in early 2015 by Ronnie Screwvala, Mayank Kumar, Phalgun Kompalli and Ravijot Chugh, with an aim of empowering individuals to reach their full professional potential by providing them with formal educational programs.

The company provides programs in the areas of Data Science, Technology and Management to college students and working professionals. These programs are created by partnering with a number of top academic institutions, including BITS Pilani, IIIT-Bangalore, Cambridge Judge Business School of Executive Education and MICA. The company also has collaborations with some of industry’s best such as Google, Flipkart, Gramener to name a few in order to create a cohesive and practical learning experience.

upGrad has powered over 3 lakh careers since its inception. The company has been awarded the ‘Best Tech for Education’ by IAMAI in 2019. The company received the ‘Best Education Brands’ award by Economic Times and has made it to LinkedIn’s ‘Top 25 Startups’ in 2018. For more information, please visit upGrad.